


Time to Heal

by immortalje



Series: Prompt Challenges [62]
Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Heartbreak, M/M, Post-Episode: s03e13 Last of the Time Lords
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-30
Updated: 2013-08-30
Packaged: 2021-03-10 01:48:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 569
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27962555
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/immortalje/pseuds/immortalje
Summary: Jack needed time to heal his broken heart.
Relationships: The Doctor/Jack Harkness
Series: Prompt Challenges [62]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2047814





	Time to Heal

**Author's Note:**

> This was written for the prompt "How Can You Mend a Broken Heart?" on [my card](http://love-sacrificed.livejournal.com/76150.html) for round 3 @ [love_bingo](https://love-bingo.livejournal.com/)
> 
> This takes place at the end of the season 3 finale "The Last of the Time Lords" when Jack declines the Doctor's invitation to come along.

Jack had been all smiles and jokes as he declined the Doctor's invitation to travel with him again, but deep inside he had been burning with pain.

For over a century he had waited for the day he met the Doctor again, had longed for it. He had been ready to leave his life behind at a moment's notice. He had appreciated the new look, while cursing his bad luck that saw him unable to reach him at the same time. His heart had held out the long separation on one certain fact - the Doctor believed him dead.

Finding out that the Doctor had known he had survived and had deliberately abandoned him, had stung. The pain of his heart shattering at that truth put every previous heart ache to shame. The pain of longing for the Doctor, the pain of losing people he cared about - nothing compared to hearing the truth straight from the Doctor's mouth.

Even worse had been to hear why he had been abandoned. As if the fact that he now wouldn't wither and die in front of his eyes, the one reason the Doctor had always cited as the main reason for his reluctance to date him, just made him less lovable. The year that followed was hard on them all and even as he never failed to believe in the Doctor, the pain of his broken heart refused to mend.

After a year, it hurt as much as that first day. Still, the Doctor went through his own share of heartache in that year and Jack didn't want to trouble him, didn't want to show him how much that admission had hurt. So when that offer came to travel with the Doctor again, to go back to the way things used to be, he couldn't accept. Sooner or later he would slip. Even worse having the Doctor so close, yet being unable to touch again, being back to square one that he had found himself in after he had first stepped onto the TARDIS - he couldn't bear it.

So he said no, citing his team and his work to reform Torchwood as reason. It was a good reason and they did need him, but he could have told the Doctor to just come back in a week or two in which he passed along the most important information and set up a way for them to contact him in case of emergencies. However, he needed time to mend his broken heart - if that was possible at all - before he could travel with the Doctor again. Even if he risked to never receive another invitation again. Even if he might never see the Doctor again.

His team had kept the pain of waiting down, had built him up when he needed it even if they hadn't been aware of it. They would do so again. He just hoped that it would be enough.

As he walked away from the Doctor and Martha, he had to fight the urge to just turn around and say that he changed his mind. One look back and he would be rushing back to the Doctor, kissing him senseless. It didn't help that this was the right decision for his heart even if his heart, broken as it was, only wanted the Doctor to pick up the pieces.

Maybe he should treat Ianto better while he was at it.


End file.
